Fleet Operations: Application Engineer

Boston Dynamics•Waltham, MA

8d•$154,000 - $200,000•Onsite

About The Position

Boston Dynamics is rapidly scaling the Atlas humanoid fleet from prototype development to large-scale deployment. As a Fleet Operations Application Engineer, you will serve as the technical quarterback for fleet health, reliability, and operational execution. You are the first line of technical response when a robot experiences an issue. Your responsibility is to quickly determine whether the problem originates in software, controls, hardware, networking, infrastructure, or operator workflow, then coordinate the right technical experts to restore fleet availability. This role sits at the intersection of Prototype Operations, Controls Engineering, Software Engineering, Hardware Engineering, and Research. Success requires broad technical knowledge, exceptional troubleshooting ability, strong operational leadership, and excellent communication.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Robotics, Computer Science, Systems Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
5+ years supporting complex electromechanical products or technical operations.
Experience managing or supporting an operational fleet of robots, autonomous vehicles, industrial equipment, aircraft, ships, manufacturing systems, or similarly complex assets.
Experience troubleshooting systems that integrate software, controls, networking, sensors, and hardware.
Experience leading technical incident response or operational reviews.
Strong understanding of Linux, networking fundamentals, and system diagnostics.
Experience using issue tracking and operational management tools such as Jira, ServiceNow, or similar platforms.

Nice To Haves

Experience with humanoid robots, autonomous systems, industrial robotics, or advanced automation.
Familiarity with controls systems, motion control, embedded software, or real-time systems.
Experience reading robot logs and telemetry to diagnose failures.
Experience with Python or scripting for data analysis or automation.
Understanding of version control, software deployment, and configuration management.
Experience developing operational procedures, playbooks, or troubleshooting documentation.

Responsibilities

Serve as the first technical point of contact for robot issues across the fleet.
Continuously monitor fleet health, availability, telemetry, and mission readiness.
Own operational awareness across all active robots while communicating fleet status and needs to engineering and leadership.
Balance robot availability, experiment schedules, repairs, and software releases to maximize fleet utilization.
Perform rapid system-level troubleshooting across controls, software, hardware, networking, sensors, power systems, and infrastructure.
Analyze logs, telemetry, system behavior, and robot performance to isolate failures.
Determine root-cause hypotheses and drive the appropriate escalation path.
Distinguish between software defects, controls issues, hardware failures, configuration errors, and operational problems.
Create high-quality engineering tickets containing sufficient technical detail for efficient resolution.
Lead technical incident response meetings during fleet-impacting events.
Coordinate Software, Controls, Electrical, Mechanical, Manufacturing, and Repair teams during active troubleshooting.
Drive clear ownership, priorities, action items, and follow-up.
Communicate technical status to engineers, management, and stakeholders throughout an incident.
Identify recurring failure modes across the fleet.
Partner with engineering teams to improve diagnostics, health monitoring, automation, and tooling.
Recommend process improvements that reduce downtime and improve robot reliability.
Develop troubleshooting playbooks and operational procedures for repeatable issues.
Act as the technical bridge between Fleet Operations and Engineering.
Support software deployments, hardware upgrades, and configuration management.
Coordinate repairs and validate robot readiness before returning systems to service.
Ensure lessons learned from fleet operations directly influence future robot designs.